6 Aug 08: IDDS 2008 presentations (millet and other projects), also reported by The Christian Science Monitor. A 1.2MB pdf of our final poster presentation is attached to this page, and a 750KB pdf of the final oral presentation is on this wiki's home page.

5 Aug 08: The final prototype millet thresher, ready for demonstration at the MIT Media Lab. The rim is covered with a scavenged bike fender, cardboard on the side with a plexiglass window to view the threshing. A short section of spring steel screwed to the fender presses the panicle to spoke nuts. Flags of Africa complete the prototype.





3 Aug 08: The bike spokes efficiently thresh millet, but the seed tends to go everywhere.

Video of the first bike spoke thresher.
Video of the first bike spoke thresher from through the wheel.
Video of the bike spoke thresher panicle ejection mechanism.

Also since high impact speed is critical, it made sense to try the spoke nuts as threshers. If the seeds stay within the rim and don't fall into the spokes, they will tend to not scatter as much. To contact the spoke nuts, the rim walls were bent outward with vice grips.

Video of the first bike rim (spoke nut) thresher.

From a piece of tin we created a "spring" to press the millet panicle against the threshing rim. Attached by tape to an old fender, with additional tin taped to the sides to reduce scatter of seed.


We raised the bike frame a little, making a stand with local materials. The grain is collected in a ... (drum roll) ... grain sack, clipped to some fender mounts. With some tuning we believe we can capture the vast majority of grain.



Before and After photos of the same panicle.




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